The Background
Recently, my school was out for two consecutive days. Under normal circumstances, this would mean that I would have an extended weekend and we would have to add two days to the end of the year. However, this is no longer the case. Due to a decision made by the state in 2017, the school is allowed to assign "Alternative Methods of Institution" (AMI). Don't get me wrong this sounds amazing on paper; however, similar to Communism, this practice fails when enacted.
Where it Falls Short
First and foremost, these alternative assignments have nothing to do with what the students are actually learning in class. 9th and 10th graders share the same assignments and 11th and 12th graders share the same assignments (this holds true with elementary and middle schoolers as well). Furthermore, students may be taking different classes than their peers, however they must finish the same district assigned work. One student may be taking Geometry and the other may be taking Algebra II or Calculus. You would think that this snow day work would be tailored to each class, if not student. This is not the case, however, and I believe that that is one of the reasons why this was so poorly executed.
Next, having two days of what is arguably busy work takes away from instruction and can mean missing out on several days of vital work. I was personally supposed to take an AP exam when this occurred and now the time that it takes for that seeps into that of further lessons. This means that less of the curriculum is covered, and, ultimately, students lack some of the important information needed in the next class or standardized test. AMI means that students are less prepared than they ought to be.
Finally, this had very poor communication and it shows how terrible of a bureaucracy school is. Several of my teachers assigned me work in addition to the district assigned work. I honestly do not have a problem with the work. Sure, it is annoying, however it is manageable. Lack of communication shows itself when the students discovered that the teachers were not informed about AMI. They were informed that they were supposed to assign work to the students.
This means that there are either two factions warring within the district or there is some major miscommunication. Someone at the district ordered the teachers to assign work to the students and someone else assigned work directly to the students. To be clear: this is not how an successful business, organization, or school works. Due to the nationwide decrease in funding for public schools, you would think, and rightfully so, that schools would be extremely careful about saving time, money, and energy, however this cannot be farther from the truth. It shouldn't be this way, but it is.
A final (for real) issue that I had with this fiasco is that the disctrict assigned more work to Day 1 AMI work on Day 2. Parents brought this to the attention of the district, however they failed to comment. That was a major PR disgrace.
How to fix this
Alright. Despite there being what seems to be an unsolvable mess here, there is hope. Several easy fixes are:
- The assignments need to be assigned by the teachers themselves in order to remain relevant to their class. The district cannot assign a "one size fits all" assignment. School just doesn't work that way. This fix covers and should resolve the first and second issues.
- The district sends a district-wide email, text, and phone call to all of the teachers, students, and parents informing everyone about the action plan. This doesn't seem too difficult, although the message would need to be clear and uniform: Students are to do AMI work or (preferably) teacher assigned work. We do not want a repeat of the thing that caused this in the first place: miscommunication.
- Miscommunication is also and issue on the final failure, being miscommunication on social media. This arguably has two fixes: an improvement in communication (which can be solved by responding to worried parents) and someone who is a more competent social media marketer. Although both fixes have to do with an improvement in communication, I want to highlight the social media aspect of it because social media is such a vital way of how we communicate. Every organization needs to have someone is competent and knows what they are doing in order to maintain a good public image.
This is just one of many problems that impact schools. I hope that this critique will allow you to make better decisions whether you are a school board member, CEO of a company, social media marketer, or just someone in the community. If you have any additional fixes to this issue, please comment them. Furthermore, if you have any feedback for this format or want clarification, please let me know as well. N1ghtmareT